After over three years of waiting, the final season of Stranger Things will finally premiere this month. The first batch of episodes sending off the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, will premiere on November 25, followed by another set on Christmas Day and the climactic, feature-length finale on New Year’s Eve. Before viewers say goodbye to the ’80s-tinged sci-fi horror series that helped define the modern era of Netflix, one of star Finn Wolfhard‘s biggest projects outside the influence of the Upside Down has just become available to stream for free. When You Finish Saving the World, the directorial debut of Jesse Eisenberg, has been added to Tubi‘s catalog this month.
When You Finish Saving the World is a more grounded turn for Wolfhard, casting him as a teenager named Ziggy navigating a rocky relationship with his uptight mother, Evelyn, played by Julianne Moore. The pair just can’t seem to connect, with Ziggy seeking success online as a live-streamer sharing his folk-rock music over the internet, while Evelyn focuses on helping people by running a shelter for domestic abuse survivors. Instead of trying to find common ground, they turn to other people to seek the connections they desire. Evelyn attaches herself to a young boy she meets and bonds with at the shelter, while Ziggy clumsily tries to romance a brilliant, politically active student at his school. Their respective experiences help them realize what they truly need from their familial relationship.
Wolfhard shared the screen in When You Finish Saving the World with his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-star and eventual Hell of a Summer co-director Billy Bryk, as well as Moore, Alisha Boe, Jay O. Sanders, and Eleonore Hendricks. The film was a loose adaptation of Eisenberg’s Audible Original of the same name, which also starred Wolfhard as Ziggy, but featured the Now You See Me and The Social Network lead as his father and Kaitlyn Dever as his mother, shifting through time and different periods in their lives. Despite all the talent and the acclaim the original story received, Eisenberg’s first turn behind the camera debuted to a mixed reception. It currently holds a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Collider’s Ross Bonaime giving it a B+ in his review and saying, “at its core, Eisenberg’s film is an endearing story of mother and son who were once so close, and now struggle to get what they need from each other anymore.”
What Does Life After ‘Stranger Things’ Hold for Finn Wolfhard?
Alongside Millie Bobbie Brown, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, and more, Wolfhard has been a part of Stranger Things since 2016 and has seen his character of Mike Wheeler grow over the course of nearly ten years. He’s since fleshed out his resume, joining the Ghostbustersfranchise, starring in Andy Muschietti’s It films, lending his voice to Guillermo del Toro‘s stop-motion Pinocchio, and more. Once Mike and the gang say their tearful goodbyes and find resolution in their final battle with the Upside Down, however, his next steps have yet to be decided. Nearly one year ago, he and Bryk officially signed on to reimagine the 1999 cult classic Idle Hands with help from Jason Reitman as a producer, though it’s unclear when the “weirdly personal” remake will be moving forward.
When You Finish Saving the World is now available on the Tubi catalog. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest titles coming to free streaming throughout the year.
- Release Date
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January 20, 2023
- Runtime
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88 minutes
